Researchers test 22 Egyptian mummies for heart disease

Recently, a study was done on twenty-two Egyptian mummies testing for heart disease. Among them, only sixteen had enough heart tissue to do the scan. The CT scan was done on some of the richest of the Egyptian mummies to test for heart disease and other heart problems.

The small group of scientists did not think that there would be anything left after thirty-five hundred years, but they were able to find atherosclerosis in four of the mummies and coronary artery disease in another four of the mummies.

The oldest of all the mummies scanned was lady Rai, a nursemaid to the queen whom lived from 1530 to 1570 B.C. She was approximately thirty when yous died. She had calcium deposits built up in her arteries. These same calcium deposits are rare but still commonly found in people of some of the richer nations.

There is reason to believe that the heart disease was extensive. Papyrus has been found written by priest’s describing chest pains, or angina. With these written documents, it is a good assumption that heart disease did, in fact, exist thirty-five hundred years ago. With the rich diets that these Egyptians ate, it is no wonder that heart disease was very common. It was not uncommon to find portly Egyptian men in many paintings. The more portly you were meant the more prosperous you were, which meant you were able to afford food.